Hideko Yoshida

"Fuyu no Sakura" is described as a pure love story with similarities to the popular Korean drama "Winter Sonata" (titled "Fuyu no Sonata" in Japan). Kusanagi plays a gentle glass craftsman in Yamagata who has no experience in love. Imai plays an older housewife with a husband and daughter who goes on a trip alone to Yamagata, hoping to see sakura trees blooming in winter. She gets into an accident, but is saved by Kusanagi. He ends up tending to her, and the two are soon drawn to each other.

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Naruse Uta is a "unique" 13 year old child. She possessed the talent to read sheet music even before she could speak, but has now come to the point where she hates playing the piano. Her father was also a piano virtuoso, but mysteriously disappeared from her life at a young age. Because of her father's disappearance Uta's mother had to move out of their posh home and into a far modest working class neighborhood. In this working class neighborhood there is a local grocer. The grocer's son Kikuna Oto happens to be a budding musician, but lacks the drive to truly succeed. That is until Uta Naruse comes into his life...

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In the aftermath of a major earthquake, scientists predict that Japan will sink into the sea. As further disasters follow, politicians plead with other countries to take refugees, while scientists struggle to save Japan itself.

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A young boy named Taichi Ogawara finds a fox cub on the side of the road and takes it home as a pet. He discovers it is blind, deaf, and mute. Because of this, he names it Helen, after Helen Keller.

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Yokubo from director Tetsuo Shinohara is based off of the award-winning love story by Mariko Koike. A young man searching for physical comfort and dumb lust, and the world-weary woman drowning in a sea of men that works with him. This is a fantastic new film from a remarkably skilled cast about "the beauty of sensualism."

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Miyo Hanayama works as a home care nurse, supporting the home care of patients who are close to death. Shigeaki Noguchi complains that his wife has stopped talking to him since he collapsed once. Noriko Imaizumi refuses to undergo surgery because her business has taken off and continues to recuperate at home. And 18-year-old Emi Akizuki insists on visiting the town where she used to live. Everyone is trying their best to live their lives while keeping an eye on their imminent death, which may come at any moment. Meanwhile, Yuki, a nurse like Miyo, discovers she is pregnant.

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Kenta, a young pianist who has just lost his job, is drowning his woes at a bar, when he meets a man in a Hawaiian shirt named Yamaki. He invites Kenta to work with him, and the next thing he knows, Kenta wakes up to find himself in a room he has never been in before. It is a strange room that seems to have no connection to life. He descends a staircase to find many shelves of books.

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When Honey's uncle gets kidnapped by the evil criminal gang known as "Panther Claw," she must use her magical powers of transformation to save him. Meanwhile the same crime group has been responsible for a number of other crime sprees across Tokyo. In the process, Honey teams up with the seemingly cold police woman Natsuko Aki and hot shot journalist Seiji Hayami as well as battle the four "claws" of the Panther Claw gang to save her uncle and the rest of the city.

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Takako Mamiya is a lawyer who quits her job at a prestigious law firm and establishes her own office. She confidently sets out to build her business, but soon her former firm is putting up obstacles and interfering, causing Takako's employees and clients to drift away. She finally puts together a new staff consisting of a college student who knows little about the law, a girl who applied for the job in hopes of meeting a rich guy, a hard-nosed lawyer, and a paralegal who hasn't passed the bar exam yet. Takako reluctantly handles divorce cases with her incompetent crew. For an elite lawyer like her, divorce cases are the most boring and unrewarding cases that exist. Through clashing with her employees and clients, Takako soon becomes a very mature and tough lawyer. "Divorce Lawyer" also tells the story of how difficult it is to judge love and relationships in legal terms.

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Panic occurs when the Governor of Tokyo proposes to attract a nuclear power plant to Tokyo.

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The older sister who had set backs in Tokyo, and her younger sister who wants nothing more than to move there. The two sisters, who were born and raised in a teahouse called Juicchome Chaya halfway up Mt. Takao on the outskirts of Tokyo, seek for happiness while living in a beautiful natural setting and experiencing different love affairs in this pure and heartfelt story. But one thing they can't get around in their search for happiness is the family. First there's the father, a pigheaded guy with an artisan spirit who pushes his weight around as father, and then the mother who's a tricky customer in her own right. And it's not only the family, the whole village seems to be following the love complications of our two heroines with bated breath and spreading the word around.

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Satomi is not putting much effort into her school work. She is told by her instructor that she is short of the minimum number of credits to advance. One option is for her to participate in the Robot Club, which is participating in a robot contest that is a single-elimination challenge. Satomi and the club begin working to rise to the top.

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Ask any nursery-aged little girl what she wants to be when she grows up, and she's bound to say nurse, florist, or ballerina. Ask any nursery-aged little boy what he wants to be when he grows up, and he's bound to say policeman, fireman, sports player, or pilot. As for 20-year-old young man Taiyo Suzuki, however, he's had different aspirations all his life. Moved by his elderly nursery school teacher, Taiyo decided then and there that he too, would also become one. Now, having passed the nursery school teacher examination, bright-eyed and eager Taiyo is out to make his mark in a totally female-dominated world.

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Pet Sitter Hanako Sawaguchi Case Files

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Sakurai Ann, an office worker, has been steadily saving money to move to the U.S. and live freely. When she finally reaches her goal of 5 million yen, her apartment is broken into and all of her money is stolen. She quits her job, cancels her apartment lease, and then discovers that her boyfriend has been with another woman. With no family to rely to, she finds herself living on the brink of homelessness.

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The film is a series of vignettes from Taiji Tonoyama's life and film clips, interspersed with a dialogue to camera by Nobuko Otowa, addressing the camera as if she is addressing Tonoyama himself, recollecting events in his life. The film focuses on Tonoyama's alcohol dependence and his various sexual relationships, as well as his film work with Shindo.

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The psychiatric evaluation of a young actor arrested for a brutal double murder concludes he may be unfit for trial. Further investigation, however, reveals the crime was a well-planned statement against the section of Japan's criminal code granting diminished responsibility to the mentally impaired.

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It is based on the story of The Ballad of Narayama updated to the present day, with the substitution of putting a parent into an old people's home for the abandonment of the original. The film won the Golden St. George and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.

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A band of samurai warriors places a curse on a family fortune thus frustrating the heir 4 centuries later.

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Nagito has a fetish for calligraphy on the human body and meets her ideal soulmate Jerome, an English translator sent to Japan. However, once Nagiko's father's gay publisher rejoins the scene, the story is overtaken by treachery and bloodlust.

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A close look at the inner workings of Japan's political underbelly.

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When Izumi can't stand seeing her mother flirt with other men, she leaves home. She sends a letter to Mitsuo and Mitsuo goes looking for her. But Izumi unexpectedly meets Tora-san.

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A hospital accidentally gives a man Count Dracula's blood while trying to save his life. A year later, he's back from the dead, trying to right the wrongs of his life while trying to resist the urge to become a vampire.

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A fierce succession battle ignites at a newspaper company when the president passes away.

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A trilogy of separate stories. In "Labyrinth labyrinthos", a girl and her cat enter a strange world. In "Running Man", a racer takes on the ultimate opponent. In "Construction Cancellation Order", a man must shut down worker robots.

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Toru Hayashi is an unremarkable bachelor who lives with his mother, until one day a young woman named Rumi moves in in the apartment upstairs. Rumi is a self-proclaimed master thief, but she needs socially awkward Toru's help to actually kickstart her so-called career.

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Set in Shanghai during the turbulent years leading up to and through World War II, the film follows a group of Japanese jazz musicians and performers struggling to hold onto music, love, and friendship amid political unrest and war. As censorship, nationalism, and conflict reshape the city, their once-vibrant nightlife gradually gives way to disillusionment, separation, and loss.

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A double suicide happens in Morioka in Iwate Prefecture. The two were employees of rival real estate companies. A prosecutor who senses a setup exposes the truth.

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The Jashinka Empire rises from the depths of the Earth to conquer the world. To stop them, Dr. Kyutaro Yumeno assembles five inventors to his laboratory, Yumeno Invention Laboratory and gives them the power to become Dynamen. Each member has their own goal, but as the Kagaku Sentai Dynaman, they are united to stop the Jashinka Empire in their tracks.

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In Genroku-era Japan, after Lord Asano is forced to commit suicide for attacking Kira, Chief Retainer Araki sends Kaizuka Shingo undercover to investigate Oishi Kuranosuke's motives. As Kiras son deploys spies to stop Oishis revenge, Kaizuka joins the samurai's cause, setting the stage for a historic raid.

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Set in Japan's Tenpyou era (729-749 CE), four young monks are sent to China to study Buddhism and bring a high priest back to Japan with them. The film tells the tale of the four monks' youth and the life and times of the high priest Ganjin.

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Obayashi's take on the famous Kosuke Kindaichi series, made popular partly thanks to the numerous movie-adaptions by Kon Ichikawa, the most known being The Inugami Family. Kosuke Kindaichi is the most famous detective in Japan. Kindaichi gets a new case to figure out who has beheaded a valuable statue and made off with its head.

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Based on the novel by Osamu Dazai and distributed by ATG. The story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. In consequence, he feels himself "disqualified from being human" (a literal translation of the Japanese title) and goes down the stairs to self-destruction step by step.

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A period comedy set at the end of the Sengoku Period about Sasuke Saruhi, a middle-aged ninja.

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Akio's sister, Neri has separated from her boyfriend. They lived in Kamakura. She moves in with her brother. Her ex-boyfriend's sister, Eiko comes to see Neri. She wonders if the separation occurred due to her because the three of them used to live together. Eiko's brother has disappeared in the meantime.

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